


Lost in the Aftermath

by Ladytalon



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Green Lantern (Comic), Green Lantern Corps - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Comfort Sex, F/M, Love, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-15
Updated: 2010-08-15
Packaged: 2017-10-11 02:43:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytalon/pseuds/Ladytalon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows "But I Never Said Yes" - Guy tries to deal with what happened to him on Oa; Tora knows something's wrong, but how long can he keep it from her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in the Aftermath

It's like everything's gone sour on him – like a couple days ago, when he was ready to go home and screw the living daylights out of Tora. He'd told her so, too, and when she'd finally stopped giggling she turned pink and said that was fine by her. Now, just the thought of being alone with her makes his stomach churn because she'll _know_ somehow. Ice always knows when something's wrong and even though she never pressures him into telling her, she'll gaze at him with those big blue eyes looking just like a kicked Basset Hound until he spills anyway.

Funny thing is, he always feels better after he tells her. This, though… he can't tell her this. Not ever.

He can't tell anybody.

They'd never believe him, for starters. "_Guy's just being Guy_," they'd say. "_Typical Guy_." Playing yet another joke that isn't all that funny. If they _did_ believe him… well, he can only imagine the looks and the whispers. Telling? So very _not_ happening.

The trip from Oa to Earth seems like it takes twice as long this time. Guy left earlier than he'd said he would just to keep Kyle from tagging along, but it's just a matter of time until he shows up and starts asking why Guy doesn't want to hang out with him.

Earth looms up in front of him with its swirls of white covering the blue and green. Guy angles towards North America, wishing for the umpteenth time that he wasn't anywhere near here but there was no way he's staying back on Oa because _she's_ there. It feels like he's retreating and he hates it, but just the thought of running into Soranik Natu makes him feel sick.

When he gets to Tora's apartment, Fire's there watching some dumbass chick flick and she throws a handful of popcorn at him for walking in front of the TV. "I'm not leaving just because you're here," she scowls.

"Like I give a crap. Where's Ice?" Bea doesn't answer him so Guy acts like he's going to stand in front of the TV again and she points towards the bedroom, the one place he's not ready to go. "I gotta go get somethin' so tell her I'll be back-"

"Guy?" Tora calls out, coming around the corner to seize his hands and pull him down the hall out of sight from Bea. She jumps up into his arms, lifting her face for a kiss expectantly. "What did you need to get?"

Guy touches his lips to hers quickly and sets her back down. "Nothin', just man stuff…"

"I already bought some of the beer you like and we have ice cream for, um, _later_." Tora slips her hand into his jacket and brushes her fingers against his abs in a way that gets him to half-mast before he jerks away from her. And just like he'd known it would, a small frown appears on her face as she looks up at him. "Guy…?"

Damnit. "Don't mind me, I'm just real tired. Remind me to tell ya about those three planets I saved all by myself," he jokes. "Got a blue ribbon an' everything."

The frown's still there but she nods anyway and pretends that her feelings aren't hurt; any other time, he'd be grinding all over her like his life depended on it. "Do you want to watch the movie with us? I was going to order pizza," Tora says softly, all hesitant now, and he feels like the sector's biggest tool for making her go into her shell.

"Naw, don't do that – I'll cook somethin' if you want," he offers guiltily.

Her lips curve up into a sweet smile, the kind that always makes his heart turn over. "Okay. Omelets would be nice, if you don't mind making one for Bea…?"

"Well, you got rat poison here dontcha?" Guy pretends to flinch as she gives his arm a punch.

It's awkward when he comes into the living room, ignoring the way Bea sniffs at her food suspiciously, and Tora immediately comes over to sit with him. Guy wants things to be like they were before, but he also doesn't really want her to touch him. His plate sits forgotten on his knee as he stares at the television without seeing it, wondering what he's going to do when Fire leaves and Tora wants to do it. It just doesn't seem fair that this, the longest piece of vacation time he's gotten in a while, is now ruined because of _her_.

But it wasn't just her. He should be flattered that she wanted to, right? He should be grateful or something. Maybe it really _was_ a Korugarian thing, maybe that's just what they did. Maybe it was his fault for just not knowing.

One minute he feels confused about why Natu even did it in the first place, the next he's wondering why he didn't just tell her to knock it off. The thing was, she acted like she didn't even give a damn… which is funny. The uncomfortable kind of funny.

Why couldn't she have just left him alone? A sudden flare of anger almost makes him pick up his plate and throw it across the room; he gets pissed off pretty easily lately, getting into a fight with Vath and Isamot and even snarling at little Arisia for some stupid thing. Guy's lucky that Salaak didn't cancel his leave after an argument with Boodika almost ended in a fistfight directly over the central battery.

The moment he's been dreading arrives before he knows it as Tora's hand waving in front of his face interrupts his thoughts and Guy sees that the movie's end credits are rolling. Bea must have left already, because her hooker heels are gone. "What were you thinking about so hard?" Ice asks him. Her eyes are about to go into Kicked Puppy Mode, he can just tell.

"Nothin.'"

Guy delays as long as he can but when Tora comes out of the bathroom wearing the lingerie he'd given her as a present to himself, there's nothing he can do but watch as she walks towards him with a tentative smile. "Do you like it?"

His voice sounds hoarse as he tells her that she looks beautiful. Guy's heart is pounding in his chest, and he can feel the panic rising. She'll know he cheated and she'll hate him for it, what if she can smell Natu on him even though he scrubbed himself sore after it happened, what if what if what if _whatifwhatifwhatif_-"I'll be back," he almost yells, bolting through the door leading to the bathroom.

Guy flips on the exhaust fan and leans against the sink, wondering what the fuck is wrong with him. _You got your lady out there, ready to give you some and you're in here freaking out like some broad_, he tells his reflection silently. _Get the hell back out there and tap that_. Guy splashes water on his face and glares at himself in the mirror before turning off the light and going back to where Tora's waiting for him.

Firmly suppressing any thought other than how hot his girl looks in that brand-new teddy, Guy kisses her and shoves a hand into her panties. He pushes her hands away when she unzips his pants and tries to touch his cock, ignoring her when she asks him if he's planning on taking off the rest of his clothes. Her hands slide up beneath his shirt when he crouches over her to roll on a condom and Guy has to jerk himself a few times because, for some reason, he's having trouble staying hard.

_That's the last goddamn thing I need_, he thinks sourly. Tora's looking at him funny but at least she doesn't ask him where all the foreplay went, because he just needs to get this over with. He braces himself between her legs and tries to push in but it doesn't work because his dick's too soft, so he has to jerk off a little more. Guy starts swearing when he _still_ can't get it in, hitting Tora's hands away angrily as she tries to touch him. "Jesus _fuck_!"

"It happens," she soothes. "It's okay-"

"No, it _ain't_ okay. _Fuck_." Guy rolls off of her, frustration and humiliation making him lash out. "I told you I was tired, but you just had to get your slutty outfit on and-" her gasp sounds ten times louder than it really is, and Tora scrambles off the bed and into the bathroom. The door slams and the water starts up, but not before he can hear her start crying.

She stays in there for exactly forty-three minutes – he knows because he lays there in the dark, watching the clock and hating himself – before she finally comes back out and gets into bed quietly. "Guy?" she whispers. "Are you awake?"

The apology that's trying to come out gets stuck in his throat. If he tells her he's sorry, she'll want to hear everything and a Basset Hound is still a Basset Hound whether he can see it or not. Guy waits until she goes to sleep (which takes another hour and twelve minutes) and then he gets out of bed and heads for the balcony where he sits looking out at the city lights, wondering just what he's going to do.

In the morning, Tora finds him out there asleep and she wakes him with a light touch to his face. "Do you want to come back inside?"

Guy scrubs a hand over his face, feeling the pattern of the balcony railing imprinted on his skin. "Be there in a sec," he promises.

Four more days go by, practically crawling because he feels paralyzed whenever she looks at him. Tora doesn't even try to initiate sex and although Guy's relieved about it, he kind of wishes she would because there's no way _he's_ going to start something. He's unhappy, _she's_ unhappy, and neither of them mentions it even though Guy knows that Tora's nearly busting a gut to talk to him. When Kyle finally gets in touch with him, wanting to hang out, he knows it's time to tell her _something_.

He takes a shower, wondering what he should say to her, and finally decides what he's going to do. That whole 'friend of a friend' crap might just work on her; Guy loves Tora half to death, but she sure can believe the craziest shit sometimes. Maybe after breakfast, he'll try it out and see what she thinks. He nearly has a heart attack when he finds Tora sitting there with her back to the bathroom door as he pulls back the shower curtain and reaches for a towel.

"What's going on, Guy?"

"Uh." Guy fumbles with the towel, trying to tie it around his waist and nearly dropping it twice. _Yeah, real fuckin' slick_.

Tora opens her mouth to say something, probably to ask why he doesn't want to bone her, so he blurts out the story he's been rehearsing in his head. "Before I, uh, left Oa? Well, something happened and… it's kinda, um, I mean it's messed up and… okay, remember that one time when I told you about Iolande having servants an' everything? She told me that one of 'em – you know, the servants - went to the, the doctor or whatever they got on Betrassus…"

He toes the rug and doesn't look at her as he stutters like a retard, telling her what happened as if what Natu did actually happened to one of Iolande's slave girls or whatever. Guy actually feels a _little_ better for telling her, even though there's still no way he can say that it was him that the thing happened to. "So I, um, I'm sorry for bein' such a douche. I guess it's just really buggin' me," he finally apologizes. "I was looking forward to seeing you an' everything."

Tora looks at him thoughtfully. "Sexual abuse is a terrible thing to happen to anyone – of course you're upset about it… but it isn't your fault, Guy."

Guy's head snaps up. "What? What isn't my fault?" he asks defensively. "It's not like it happened to- I mean, I didn't do nothin' to that servant chick." _Sexual abuse?_ That can't be what it's called when _guys_ are the ones it's being done to. It was weird and all, but… no, it couldn't be. That shit just doesn't happen to men. It doesn't happen to _him_.

"Of course you didn't. I know what kind of man you are." Aw, jeez – she's bringing out The Look. "Is there _anything_ else you wanted to tell me?"

He finally manages to get past her, and rummages through the closet for the small section that holds some of his spare clothes. "Tora, I swear to God I didn't spit in Bea's omelet." She starts to say something, but he interrupts her. "Didn't jizz in it, either. C'mon, you gotta show me where you put the eggs – they ain't where I left 'em."

The rest of the morning goes pretty good. They walk into the restaurant where Kyle wanted to meet and when Tora snuggles up to him and puts her hand in his back pocket, Guy doesn't mind at all. It's a little awkward when Kyle shows up and starts telling her all about how Guy ditched him, but the subject gets changed to some art gallery that Kyle might get a show at. Guy feels better than he has in days; Tora's relaxing against him, scanning the menu and teasing Kyle about all his naked lady paintings, when Kyle straightens up and yells out, "Hey, Sora! Over here!"

He freezes up and it's for sure that Tora knows something's up because she drops the menu and first looks up at him, then over at Soranik Natu. Guy can't believe she has the balls to come here – how _dare_ she come here. She slides into the booth directly across from him, and smiles. "Nice to see you again, Lantern Gardner."

"Tora, this is Soranik. Soranik, Tora," Kyle introduces the two women. "I can't remember if you two have met before. Tora here has been putting up with Guy's shit for years – we're expecting her to make an honest man of him any day now," he jokes.

Soranik's still smiling, and Guy wants to rearrange her face. "That I would like to witness."

Oh, _hell_ no. "While we're talkin' honesty, I'm _honestly_ surprised you even got the guts to show up. Last time anyone here saw skin red as yours, a whole buttload of Sinestro's buddies were tearin' shit up."

Tora's fingers wrap around his bicep, and Kyle's mouth falls open in shock. "Guy! What the hell?"

"This is _my_ planet," he warns her, wondering if you could beat someone to death with a dessert menu.

Kyle starts in on him for being an asshole and Guy knows he should apologize because Kyle's his best friend, but he's too pissed off to care. Under the table, a knee that definitely does _not_ belong to Tora presses against his thigh and it seems like he's back there on her exam table with no clothes on. "While others seem to believe your lack of manners is charming, Guy, I do not." He's going to break her fucking leg if she doesn't move it, he swears to God he will.

"I think that you should leave," a voice says quietly and they all stop to look at Tora, who's shaking like a leaf and staring down at the tabletop. Half of it's frozen solid, and ice crystals are already forming on the rest of it. She looks across the table at Soranik and says something that makes Guy feel as frozen as the ice creeping up his water glass. "You had no right."

"He didn't seem to mind."

"What's going on?" Kyle asks angrily. "Who didn't mind what?"

"I'll tell you later," Soranik says, jerking her chin towards the door. "Come on, let's go. I'm not that hungry."

They leave, but Guy doesn't see them go because now _he's_ the one staring down at the table. The waiter comes by to take their order and he hears Ice say that they "won't be staying to eat, thank you." The waiter leaves, muttering under his breath about metas and the icicles dripping water on the carpet.

"Do you want to go back to-"

He nods silently and as they walk back to her place Guy shoves his hands in his pockets and tries not to think about the conversation that's going to be happening whether he wants it to or not. He should've just kept his damn mouth shut earlier. She didn't _know_ earlier.

Ice unlocks the door and he goes into the living room intending to sit down because that's where chicks always want to talk, isn't it, on the couch? But he looks at the couch and wonders if he should have gone to the kitchen table because that's where you always got dumped after they said, _let's go sit down and talk_. Guy doesn't know when he's been this fucking humiliated, aside from when he couldn't get it up the other night, and he tries to keep from shaking but he just can't seem to do it.

He can hear her walking up behind him and he waits for Tora to say that she wants to talk, but all she does is come up and take his Ring hand in both of hers. "I've never wanted to kill someone before," she says softly. "Come here."

Tora leads him to the couch and sits down beside him, reaching a hand up to caress his face with such love in her eyes that he has to look down at where her fingers are twined with his. "I didn't… I didn't tell her no," Guy stammers, blinking furiously against the pricking behind his eyes.

"But you _never_ said yes." She pulls him down to her and it's got to look funny because he's nearly twice her size but it feels so good to be held and when she turns her head to kiss his temple, there's absolutely nothing he can do to keep the tears from coming.

Tora strokes his hair and lets him cry, not even once acting like she thinks he's a big baby for sobbing all over her and when most of the tension's left his body, she gets him down the hall and into the bedroom where he lays in her arms with his eyes closed while she rubs the back of his neck in slow circles that make him sleepy. "I wish you'd told me sooner," is all the telling off she gives him. "When you hurt, I hurt."

He falls asleep with his face pressed against her stomach and later wakes up in the same place with Tora still touching his shoulders and running her fingers through his hair. Guy's limbs are stiff from staying in the one position so long, and he limps to the fridge to get them both something to eat – he can hear Tora moving around doing something, and when he comes back he sees that she has some sort of candlelight thing going.

"What's goin' on?"

"Come sit with me a moment." Ice pats the bed and he sits down, wondering what she's up to. "I'd like to try something, if you'll let me."

Guy wonders if she's about to suggest that they both talk to Salaak about what happened or something, but that wouldn't explain the candles – what _is_ it about chicks and candlelight? "Depends on what it is," he says cautiously.

"We shouldn't let...her…come between us anymore. Maybe that's just what she wants."

The humiliation of what happened last time is fresh in his mind. "I dunno, Tora…"

She sits up on her knees and takes off her top, reaching her hands behind her back to unhook her lacy pink bra. Guy swallows hard as she shimmies out of her jeans so that she's only wearing panties that don't match the bra she's already taken off. "It's going to be okay," Tora whispers at him, hooking her thumbs in the waistband and sliding them down her thighs. It feels weird because she _never_ takes her clothes off first, especially when he's still wearing all of his, and all Guy can do is watch, dry-mouthed as she crawls over to him.

Ice takes his face between her hands and kisses him, the cool tip of her tongue flicking at the corners of his mouth. Guy slides his hands over the silky skin of her sides, down the stretch of her thighs and back up while she rubs her body against his. Her fingers slide up under his shirt, smoothing over his stomach and tugging his jeans down just enough to rub against his hipbone as he cups her left breast and strokes his thumb over the peaked nipple. Tora's hands are all over him, everywhere but the one place he's now desperate for her to touch.

Pulling his shirt up, Tora leans over and starts placing sucking kisses all over his chest – her fingers are resting frustratingly close to his crotch, and he moves his hand from where he's fondling her breasts to grab her hand and place it where he wants it.

Tora scoots up to lie down beside him, smoothing her hand over the bulge between his legs and tracing him with her fingers, stroking the trapped length of his cock until Guy lowers his zipper and guides her hand inside. The touch of her fingers makes his grip on her wrist tighten, but it's plain that she won't do anything to him that he doesn't want. "Please," he asks hoarsely.

She pulls him off so slowly, he can't tell where he ends and she begins. Squeezing firmly at the base Tora drags her hand up towards the tip, the ring she's made of her thumb and forefinger tight around him. When she finally reaches the leaking tip of it and lifts her hand away, Guy can't help but strain after her.

Ice leans forward and sucks up the precome with a dainty little slurp that would ordinarily make him start laughing because of how ladylike she's trying to be, slipping the tip of her tongue into the sensitive slit before covering his cockhead with a few firm licks. Then Tora sits back up and starts stroking him again, puckering up her lips and blowing a stream of cool air onto him that makes his balls tighten.

She works him until he's writhing beneath her hands, and Guy throws his head back with a cry when it's impossible to hold back anymore. He comes hard, a stuttered "_Huh-huh-huh_" leaving his throat as he empties himself with heavy pulses that…sweet Jesus, it's all over her _face_.

Guy lets his head fall back onto the bed, gasping up at the ceiling. "God_damn_, Baby."

"So that was okay?" Tora asks, playing all innocent as she zips him up and wipes her face, making sure that he can see her lick the come from the corner of her mouth.

"Where'd you even _learn_ that?" Guy asks, reaching out to pull her to him.

Tora snuggles close, laying her head on his chest. "You're not the only one with an imagination."

Guy cards her white hair through his fingers, turning his head to look out at the window. He guesses it wasn't so bad after all, coming back to Earth – left to himself, he probably would have picked a fight he knew that he couldn't win. With Tora here beside him, it's almost like what happened on Oa had never happened at all… but it isn't something he'll ever forget.

Tora lifts up her head, smiling at him, and Guy smiles back. He's not stupid enough to think that everything will magically go back to normal after this… but it helps.


End file.
